Poppy Brooding … part 1

Well we’ve wormed all the girls with Ivomec (Noromectin) and shifted Poppy to the Broody Coop. It remains to be seem whether she’ll stay broody or start fretting for her usual surroundings. Fingers crossed, anyway.

She’s been quite good about coming out of her own accord for a quick feed, water and scritch break. But that was in her home coop, with the other girls. It could all go horribly wrong.

And that’s the thing – at every stage of the process, it could go horribly wrong.

She might decide she doesn’t want to be broody after all.

She might sit on the eggs for a few days, then decide she’s had enough and leave the nest.

She might brood to full term, then attack the chicks.

Any one of dozens of sad options. If you think about them, it’ll make you too fearful to ever try anything. So I will have faith in my Poppy. If it happens, wonderful. If it all turns to omelettes … well, them’s the breaks*.

Oh, and to mess with my head properly, Bessie tried to spend the night in the nestbox. (Often an early sign of broodiness.)